Green Room

PETA rakes in $34 million, but only saves 8 animals

PETA is in hot water over their euthanasia rates right now. Despite reporting an annual revenue of an astounding $34 million in 2009, they only saved the lives of 8 animals. Every other animal turned over to PETA was euthanized. This has critics furious, and rightly so.

The organization euthanizes over 90 percent of the dogs and cats relinquished to its headquarters in Norfolk, Va. In 2009, PETA euthanized 2,301 dogs and cats — 97 percent of those brought in — and adopted only eight, according to Virginia state figures. And the rate of these killings has been increasing. From 2004 to 2008, euthanasia at PETA increased by 10 percent.

The numbers are remarkable in contrast to nearby shelters. In the same town, the Norfolk City Pound euthanized 54.7 percent of its dogs and cats in 2009. In 2008, the most recent year on record, the Norfolk SPCA found homes for 86 percent of its dogs and cats and euthanized only 5.3 percent.

But of course, don’t blame PETA. They’re doing the best they can. Right?

“Our euthanasia program has never been a secret,” said Daphna Nachminovitch, vice president of cruelty investigations at PETA. “This is one of many, many things that we do to alleviate the suffering of animals.”

Nachminovitch brushes aside the idea that there is a financial motive behind their practice. PETA reported an annual revenue of more than $34 million in 2009. She says shelters don’t cost much money to build or maintain, but when they are jam-packed with homeless pets, the caged animals suffer. The culprits aren’t the shelters that euthanize animals, she adds, but the breeders and pet shops that fill society with 6 million to 8 million shelter animals each year.

“Money can’t buy a good home, so it’s not a matter of money,” she said. “You could build the nicest shelter in the world, but if you don’t have homes for them, they’re still going to sit in a cage.”

And that is the problem with Winograd’s movement, according to PETA. The emphasis on “no-kill” means shelters are overcrowded and animals suffer. Instead, the emphasis should be on “no-breed.” PETA promotes spaying and neutering with this in mind and sterilized 8,677 animals last year.

While this is indeed a good point, it’s still hard to believe that there was nothing PETA could do to save the lives of more of the animals they took in.

Maybe it’s just me… but could the loonies at PETA perhaps stop using their money on such crazy ideas, and maybe use it to try to get more of their animals adopted? I don’t know, maybe they could use it to buy some newspaper ads or something. Maybe instead of billboards telling fat girls to go vegan, they could buy billboards advertising the animals they have available for adoption. An animal shelter in my hometown would have a “pet of the day” feature on the morning news every day to advertise their adoptable pets — perhaps PETA could try that. I don’t know, those are just a few of my ideas. But apparently PETA has more important things to spend their money on than saving the lives of animals.

Now, yes, PETA is not an adoption agency. But it seems to me that they’re playing an extremely hypocritical game. They want to shame people who eat lobsters into taking trips into a “lobster empathy center”, but they euthanize almost every single animal that falls into their hands because they can’t possibly do anything more to find them homes? It doesn’t seem like these animals are being euthanized because of health reasons or issues with agression. They’re euthanizing them because they don’t want to put them in a shelter, which is “cruel”. Killing them for pure convenience? Not so cruel. Yes, that sounds really ethical. Let’s recap. Eating fish or lobsters or meat? Horrible, terrible, and unethical. Euthanizing animals out of laziness and for convenience? Completely ethical!

It seems clear that there is literally no reason for anyone to support PETA anymore.

Cross-posted from Cassy’s blog. Stop by for more original commentary or follow her on Twitter!

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I remember watching an episode of bullsh*t with Penn and Teller. They pointed out that one of the leaders of peta relies on insulin… made from sheep IIRC. Always found that incredibly hypocritical if true.

If P.E.T.A. is really for ethics where are theirs? They are participants is a nonsensical utopian dream world devoid of all discomfort for members of the animal kingdom. Have they never seen mother nature function? What are their suggested solutions for a pride of lions hunting and attacking a wildebeest(GNU) and starting to eat it before it is dead? Is a lioness clamping the GNU’s nose in her mouth to suffocate it the humane treatment they espouse? If eating meat is so diabolical why the supreme entity create carnivores?

Why is sneaking up on a poor defenseless plant and ripping it out of it home or tearing off body parts for a salad humane? Why isn’t there P.E.T.P. People for the Ethical Treatment of Plants? Don’t they have a right to live on earth too without being traumatized?

I remember reading an article years ago in which a PETA crazy (is that redundant) declared that owning pets was exploitive of the animals and evil. This guy actually stated that euthanizing them was more humane than allowing them to be adopted out.

Not only that, but they are so awesome that they barely have to give any of that $34 million to the City of Norfolk where they reside. Us residents of Tidewater have to deal with PETA stories every single day of the week, twice.

Awesome. I love The Animal Rescue Site and when I get some money to spare, I plan to buy some apparel, a few knick-knacks and some goodies for my beloved kitteh from them.

As a vegetarian who’s slowly but surely going vegan myself, I have to say that it really sucks that Vegan has become synonymous with PETA nowadays. A lot of other vegans and vegetarians that I’ve met have pretty much had it with PETA’s shenanigans as well.

The only positive thing that I can say about PETA off-hand is that they’re a good shopping resource for the newbie vegetarian or vegan. Through PETA I found some great cooking & baking books, amazing cruelty-free cosmetic companies and last but not least, I found Matthew Scully’s book, which would eventually become my favorite read.

But in regards to doing good things for the actual animals? The ASPCA, the SPCA International (especially with the SPCAI’s Bahgdad Pups program) and Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary as well as a countless amount of other animal welfare organizations >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> PETA a million times over. When I was working, I even made monthly donations to the ASPCA and SPCAI. As long as PETA continues to use their ample amount of cash to spend on their silly shock campaigns while uh… ‘liberating’ perfectly adoptable animals, they’ll never get a dime in donation money from me.